Not a Newsletter: Mar24 Edition

I’m typing this quietly from hotel room 832 in Duxton, Singapore. Fafa is fast asleep beside me, but I am wide awake even though it’s past midnight in Singapore (and way past midnight in Melbourne). At least I am doing something productive. Well, semi-productive…

Highlights

🎂 ━ Fafa’s surprise birthday party! Since we’d be in Singapore for his actual birthday, I wanted him to have an actual celebration with his friends. And he did! All his friends came, including Jik and Waggz, who flew in from Sydney. It was so much fun (even for me, who planned it!).

🍷 ━ I attended several events at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival this year, most of which I missed out on last year. When the MFWF West Side program was announced, I quickly grabbed a few tickets, including a visit to the St. Alban Market, a food crawl in Sunshine and Moonee Ponds, and a cannoli-making class held by the T Cavallaro family. Fafa was legit jealous after seeing the pictures of the food and has now requested to be included in future events.

🥾 ━ The next morning in Dumbo, Jik, Waggz, and us made a pact to do a Kumano Kodo pilgrimage together next year. Here’s to more birthdays, celebrations, trips, and all things combined.

💯 ━ I restarted my #100HappyDays quest (the first time I did it was in 2020 during Covid) and completed it recently. This time, I learned that mind over matter, as in I have the control to perceive a situation, and I can choose to see (most of) them in a positive light.

Culture Chat

🪩 ━ Last December, when I stayed over at Liz’s place, Tom took us through a very drunken cultural study of Berghain, Berlin’s most infamous underground club, on YouTube. It was fun, and ever since, I have added it to my Kuest list.

🎶 ━ Earlier, when we were hanging out at my cousin W’s home, her husband introduced me to Ghazal. It’s a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets, usually in Urdu or Persian, set to music and mostly performed solo (thanks, Wikipedia).

🍲 The day before that, another brother-in-law, the one who is semi-based in Singapore, told us about the Great Budget Meal Hunt, allowing the public to crowdsource cheap meals.

Found and Love

📷 ━ If you are looking for an Instax, consider the Fujifilm Instax Mini 99. Meanwhile, I am tempted by Fujifilm x100vi thanks to the power of social media━namely TikTok (and I don’t even have TikTok app on my phone!!).

👘 ━ If you are looking for a care package filler, the Oodie sleeping gown has been my go-to gift of choice so far this year.

🍳 ━ If you are egg obsessed, looking for an art piece, and have a few hundred dollars to spend on it, get one of these Fried Egg paintings. I would!!! (if I am egg-obsessed and have a few hundred dollars to spend).

⭐ ━ If you still have more dollars to spend, a thousand to be exact, are into stargazing, and live in Victoria, treat yourself to a night at Bubble Retreats.

🎒 ━ If you are looking for a catch-all backpack, I recommend the Passenger’s Boondocker Recycled Backpack. I caved and got it recently for this Singapore trip. It’s stylish, 26L, and has two laptop pockets. I wish they had an anti-theft zip – that would get them an extra point from me.

💻 ━ Now, I need help. My MacBook died on me! I am thinking of getting a Windows instead (I might regret this!!), but do any recommendations?

Read, Watched, and Browsed

📚 ━ The first thing we did after landing in Singapore, well after we dropped our luggage and had lunch at Chilli Up, was to go to bookstores. We went to Kinokuniya first, followed by Littered with Books and the new-ish Book Bar in Duxton, and came back with ten books between the both of us. I am so glad for Emirates’ 42kg luggage limit.

🐟 ━ A favourite book I read this month was Chinese Fish by Grace Yee, which I got on a whim in Martin Bookshop in Queen Victoria Market.

📺 ━ Fafa and I had an impromptu movie date watching You Hurt My Feelings, starring my all-time favourite Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes). The movie was simple, light, and didn’t require much brainpower to watch. After hours of working and studying, I appreciated it exactly for that reason. The reviews, on the other hand, are polarizing and pretty entertaining to read—but they do require more brainpower.

👻 ━ Meanwhile, I’ve been filling up my horror movie cup with all the free Found Footage movies I could find on YouTube. It all started with The Screaming Silent, then Wendigo, and many more that I don’t bother to remember anymore since they’re in my YouTube history. My absolute favourite is the “Mainsfield Dark Horror” series. Outside of YouTube, I watched “Bramayugam,” a black-and-white Malayalam horror movie starring the megastar Mammootty.

🥘 ━ While researching what and where to eat in Singapore, I discovered the Live2makan blog. I chuckled while reading his on-point Ba Xa Noodles review. Another good blog to read just for the sake of reading is by Singapore-based writer Clara Chow, titled “Why must go so far to write?“. The blog documents her writing residency in Korea. Another current fave is EvieWhy (on IG and Medium).

🔖 ━ Winners of national penmanship contest crowned as handwriting is ‘having a moment’.

Foodie Guide-y

🍙 ━ Earlier this month, our next-door neighbour invited us to another delicious BBQ feast. As usual, we over-ate and overstayed before they sent us off with souvenirs from India, fairy floss for Fafa, and a super cute artsy chai pot for me.

🍝 ━ This month also marks my eighth year of living in Melbourne. I spent a good chunk of time researching a good Italian place in the West that would deliver (it has been a tradition to celebrate my Australian milestones with a bowl of pasta), but I never managed to find one. Long story short, this, too, was a failure – the focaccia tasted like cardboard. I still owe myself a decent bowl of pasta – maybe after the exam.

🦀 ━ Fafa took me to the newly revamped version of our old favourite, Ima Cafe, now called Ima Asa Yoru, for a post-surprise-birthday-party debrief. The place is so cool! But food-wise, I personally prefer Chi A K I better. Sorry Ima people!

🧈 ━Some time ago, Liz and I promised to give each other experiences for birthdays. So this year, she took me out to Lucy Liu to celebrate her birthday, where we polished off a delicious bottle of Chianti. Then, a week later, I took her out for Mapo Tofu as a birthday gift. We closed off the celebration with a drink (or two) at the Moat, where she got her favourite cocktail: The First Word.

🍘 ━ One good thing I got from the underwhelming Indonesian Food Festival at Queen Victoria Market was Baso Goreng (deep-fried pork meatball). It was my go-to office snack when I was working in Jakarta. It wasn’t as good, nor as big, as the Baso Goreng that Cheryl and I had to put a combined PO against back in Indo, but it was good enough that I regretted not buying more of it.

🍻 ━ On a random Wednesday, I ended up at Melbourne’s largest rooftop bar, Good Heavens, with Fafa and Shree. That was fun.

🥣 ━ I didn’t cook much this month because of my work and study schedule (which I don’t recommend at all because I recently discovered working with hands brings joy). The one thing I remember whipping up quickly one afternoon when I needed a break from both work and study was a combo of Indonesian Udang Balado, South Indian Rassam, and sunny-side-up ━ three dishes from three different cuisines, which surprisingly went well together.

🧆 ━ Cousin W cooked us Mangalorian Pork Curry tonight, a specialty of her husband’s hometown. It was absolutely delicious! She was kind enough to pack me the masala (homemade by her mother-in-law), which, if I manage to smuggle back to Australia, I can’t wait to cook with.

🍛 ━ I also told myself to try ten new-to-me Singaporean dishes during this trip. So far, I am progressing well. I’ll report back about it next month.

Kulture Kween

Now comes the hard part—I am taking a month’s break from the blog. I really didn’t want to do this as it’s a hobby, something fun I do just because I enjoy it. However, due to my current commitments, which are mostly work-related, I have to remove something from my plate; unfortunately, that something is blogging. I strive to post my monthly summary in April, but otherwise, I’ll be back with the regular schedule in May.

Things In My Mind

I understand why people may want to take selfies more often these days. With our busy lives, it might not happen if it isn’t captured in a fleeting selfie.

Tiny Joys

Free walking tours ❤ Daytime almost empty train rides ❤ Phone calls with Jik ❤ Good photographs ❤ Newly cooked rice ❤ Ganesha ring ❤ Book haul ❤ Suatelier stickers ❤ Tokyu hands ❤ Merlion Tattoo ❤ Crab dishes ❤ Walking down memory lane in Singapore ❤ Limited edition Moleskine journal ❤ Photobooth ❤ Trying new food ❤ Realizing I don’t hate unpacking as much as packing ❤ The Snake plant we brought from the old apartment is thriving ❤ Wall calendar ❤ Kaya Toast ❤ Coin massage chair ❤ Train Empire ❤ Empty flight seat ❤ Golfing ❤

Time Machine

Read more about last year’s happenings.

Thank You, Next!

🎂 ━ March has always been somewhat hectic for me, and I am glad the March madness is over! And I am even more glad that I am starting the month of April in Singapore. The whole first week of April is going to be glorious, celebrating Fafa’s birthday and hanging out with friends and Amma.

🤶🏼 ━ Speaking of Amma, I pulled The Empress as the card of the month, and aside from seeing her tomorrow, I can’t think of anything Empress-like about this month.

📚 ━ We are flying back next weekend, and the next two weeks that follow will be all about audit and exam prep. I recently saw a reel with the message, “Discipline is the highest form of self-love“. It’ll be my mantra in those late-night study sessions.

Till next month, you guys, and Eid Mubarak to you and your family 🌙

Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.